


Iceland is nice this time of year...

by Hawkbringer



Series: Never Show Weakness, Never Undress [6]
Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: Adult Ciel Phantomhive, Consensual Infidelity, Drinking, Drowning, Gen, Hangover, Rowing, Shipwrecks, Trans Male Character, Widowed, faking your death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:47:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23269426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hawkbringer/pseuds/Hawkbringer
Summary: Ciel Phantomhive's time is up. He has a wife, has children, all his affairs in order. All that is left to do is exit, stage left... (written originally 23rd of jan 2013, or earlier)
Relationships: Sebastian Michaelis/Ciel Phantomhive
Series: Never Show Weakness, Never Undress [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1673182
Kudos: 20





	1. To Iceland By Ship

**Author's Note:**

> It is nearing the Season - those few months of warm weather that aristocrats in England spend in London to socialize and show off and form business contacts and make arranged marriage proposals and so forth. Ciel thinks London must be a much more lonely place during the winter. He thinks he'd like it better then.
> 
> But because it is nearing the Season and he has been so very good at going every single year for the past....several, at least.... he cajoles Lizzie into going to London with the children and the servants. He tells her he is going to vacation in Iceland, that they have some very nice hot springs he would like to visit. Or perhaps he tells her that he's going slightly before May, and he'll be sure to be back in time to go to London for the Season. I like that better.

"Iceland? In the winter?!" Lizzie fairly shrieks in response to his informing her. "You'll absolutely catch your death of cold!" She has been better, these last few years, about not shrieking quite so loudly in response to everything he does. Living with him on a daily basis has disabused her of the notion that everything he did was 'cute.' 

"It is a common misconception that Iceland is cold," he tells her, holding up one amusingly-imperious finger like a child would. He knows she will not think to doubt his knowledge of his own professed vacation spot so he continues, "Their summers are cooler than England's own, that is true, but their winters are never as cold as ours. The country has many hot springs, and they do a brisk business in tourism among the Continent's upper classes."

"Also," he says in a quieter voice, taking his wife's hands in his, "I have been very busy these past few months. It would do me good to spend a little time alone, to relax and forget my worries. You know it is hard on me, to be in London for the Season--" Lizzie nods with furrowed brows- "and this respite will help me bear it with more grace." He kisses her knuckles then and she sighs and lets him. 

When he lets go of her hand, she leaps towards him and catches him in a truly heart-felt embrace. She's going to miss him, and she tells him as much. In return, he gives her a smile, or as close to one as he can manage, and kisses her lips sweetly in return. 

As he makes preparations to go abroad for two weeks, Lizzie looks on with worry and concern, but no real fear for his safety - she has been informed that Sebastian will be going with him. 

The number of servants in the employ of Phantomhive has grown since Ciel was 12, but each one is still quite hapless at their assigned tasks. Tanaka-san will remain, and promises to act as butler to the household while Sebastian is away. 

Ciel has a carriage loaded up with a suspiciously minimal amount of luggage, for a two-week trip abroad, and Tanaka sits up in the driver's seat, whips the horses' backs, and the carriage takes off. Tanaka returns around nightfall without incident, the horses and carriage totally intact. That is all that returns to Phantomhive.

Several weeks later, the Countess Phantomhive receives a letter from the Queen, and it is addressed to /her./

The gist of the letter is this: Ciel Phantomhive and Sebastian Michealis did board a small steamer ship bound for Iceland with other travelers and cargo aboard - Tanaka saw this for himself, and there were several other witnesses on the dock. Both of them were on the ship and did not go unnoticed by the others aboard - the second mate of the ship remembers speaking with the Earl on deck and over ten passengers recalled seeing the young man and his butler - a very striking pair, those two. The ship left England's port, passed inspection, and disappeared out to sea, on schedule and without incident. 

Near the Icelandic coast, the ship was caught in an unexpected storm and some of the cargo was damaged. All of the passengers were evacuated by lifeboat for their safety, and all of them made it alive, despite some injuries and hypothermia, to the Icelandic shore. Everyone, that is, except for one Earl Ciel Phantomhive and his butler, Sebastian Michaelis. No bodies were found aboard the wreck, despite the fact that Icelandic crews were able to salvage most of the cargo from the ship within the week, as the ship wrecked in remarkably shallow waters. There were a few drowned bodies found on the nearby Icelandic shores, but none of them remotely matched the description of either man. Despite the personal interest of the Queen of England, their bodies could not be found. After weeks of investigations, the pair had to be listed as lost at sea, cause of death, drowning.

Lizzie spends the next week a sobbing mess in Paula's arms. As part of the standard mourning period, she elects to spend the first two months of the Season at the manor house. But she cannot resist the temptation of the city's distractions, and she makes a few public appearances at parties and gatherings in London, trying to raise her spirits, but out of respect, she dresses all in black. 

When she returns to the manor house at the end of the month, she brings home a gentleman friend. 

She doesn't intend for him to replace Ciel, at the beginning, but he was just so good at comforting her, at smiling almost whenever she talked.... He laughed with so little provocation. He does not remind her at all of Ciel, and she thinks that is a good thing.


	2. The Others Hear The News

Prince Soma, when he hears, immediately arranges a ride back to London from Uzbekistan, where he was participating in an ancient traditional pilgrimage across the desert with Agni by his side. Lizzie doesn't quite know what to make of him, but the servants welcome him with open arms, and the one thing Lizzie knows about Ciel's previous life is that she can trust his servants with everything, /but/ their jobs. 

The prince stays for about a week, alternately helping Agni in the kitchen, trying to teach Bard to cook with /small/ flames, and crying into Mey-Rin's shoulder. The maid is only too happy to oblige, and when the purple-haired man leaves with his highly-capable butler by his side, she has to press a handkerchief to her nose for the first time in months when he kisses her hand goodbye with a flirtatious smile and promises to visit again.

Tanaka takes care of the company, also acting as butler, in a more limited capacity because of his age, and tutor in financial matters to the oldest son. On the boy's 18th birthday, Tanaka signs the papers that make Toya the company's president, and is glad to wash his hands of such a stressful endeavor. He spends his final days with the Countess and her children, well-cared for by the servants and respected to the last.

When asked about his father, truthfully, the oldest child only vaguely remembers a man with blue-grey hair, and he thought for quite a while that perhaps that was a tutor of his, when he was little. He didn't talk much with him. He /does/ remember feeling somewhat relieved that the tall, thin, scary man with a kind smile and black hair was gone. Oh, he had always been nice to Toya, but the oldest boy had always felt like there was something to fear about him, that if he decided /not/ to be nice, he would be really, really, mean. 

The younger two don't remember anyone like that, of either description. They were too young when Ciel left to have retained any memory of him. That is how Ciel wanted it. He didn't want them to think of /him/ as their father anyway. He was sure Lizzie could pick a better man than he. Before two years had passed, she did, knowing that she had Ciel's consent to do so.

And so, life went on. For the living.


	3. What Comes Last

It all had gone precisely as Ciel had planned. When the second mate informed the polite and interested nobleman that they were only a day's sailing away from Iceland's coast, Ciel thanked him and ate slightly larger portions at dinner that night, though nothing that would raise eyebrows. 

Once he retreated to his cabin, he also indulged in an entire bottle of wine that he had brought with him especially for that purpose.

"Sebastian?" Ciel calls softly, knowing his butler cannot be far away. When a gloved hand wraps around his own out of the darkness behind his closed eyes, Ciel smiles. "It's time. I order you to make a disturbance - something not exactly life-threatening, but do damage some property while you're at it. Summon a storm or something. A moderately-strong one. Have the boat crash. But have all the passengers survive. Except us." 

Roaring drunk as he is, Ciel ends the order with a wink at his butler, which makes Sebastian smile. He tugs Ciel's hand down with him to the floor as he performs his trademark bow and intones, "Yes, My Lord." The phrase sounds so natural, rolling off his tongue, after all these years of saying it. 

*****

As morning breaks across the choppy seas, a premonition stirs the second mate to check the emergency life boats. He doesn't know why he does it, but he wanders over to the side of the boat and tugs on pulleys and pokes at the oars, hoping idly that he'll never have to use them.

Of course, he does. 

Packed into the tiny dingy with 15 other shivering passengers, the second mate thanks his lucky stars that he'd remembered about the boats when the storm started brewing. 

As he and the hardier passengers row with all their strength toward land, which he can see every so often when a shaft of light breaks through the clouds, he vaguely remembers the nobleman and his butler asking about their nautical heading and nodding as if he'd understood the technical maritime terms. 

But thoughts of the Earl... Count...whoever he was, slip away from the second mate as a wave threatens to swamp them and he barks orders to bail out the dingy.

Once on shore, he meets up with the captain and first mate and the other crew members, all alive and well, if freezing cold, and they pour over their passenger manifest together. All are accounted for except for an Earl and a butler. The second mate wonders, staring out to sea, wonders if perhaps there was one dingy missing when he went to check on them that morning.... 

His suspicions are debunked as they are all present and accounted for. He is faintly saddened to see that hope die, but it is a passing thing. He didn't even get the Earl's name, after all.

*****

Ciel wakes up with what feels like the great-great-great-grandfather of all hangovers. He moans at the headache alone before he even attempts to open his eyes. 

Sebastian is there, nearby, with the sound of swishing water around them, and his butler's voice is light when he says, "Good morning, young master. I'm sorry, but I have no tea or even water to give you to relieve that headache, so I suggest you go back to sleep to ease the pain." A hand appears out of the darkness and strokes his hair. 

Ciel says "Nnnrrgghh," to it in greeting, and turns over onto his side. 

The smell of white roses drifts up from whatever it is that feels like satin against his cheek, and it's a nice, familiar sensation so he doesn't question it. Instead, he follows Sebastian's quite excellent-sounding suggestion and sinks back into sleep. 

Sebastian chuckles as he methodically shifts the pole through the water, hauling it up and forward and pulling the boat after it, all the many long miles to Hell. 

"We do have quite a long ways to go." 

The terms of the contract stipulated that after Ciel's revenge was completed to his satisfaction, Sebastian was to take possession of his soul. 

The contract did _not_ stipulate what Sebastian was to do with it afterwards.

~~FINIS~~


End file.
